Management by Accountability

Many aspects of our lives are undergoing fundamental changes and a new
paradigm emerges. As this new paradigm is slowly unfolding, management has
a great need to adapt to these changes. In a changing world, leadership is sought
after more so then in a period of relative stability. It is no longer effective to
simply follow established rules. Many aspects of management need to be
re-evaluated. As just about every manager can vouch for, finding good employees
is rather hard. To be able to deal with or solve some of these problems we have
to look at other ways to manage employees.

Management by accountability. Accountability meaning" bound to give account,
and or responsible for". These are the very things that effective management been doing for a long time amongst it's own ranks. When applying these values to other employees, it means that management is not one up on the rest, but is leading. This makes it necessary for managers to have a greater understanding of each individual's job on the team, as well as knowing how this work will integrate with other teams. Managers will become Team leaders. These team leaders, at times may have to
yield to others in the group with different expertise. A great deal of training is
required for all concerned, and information must be shared. New systems and procedures will be sought after to fulfill the need for better communication. Ways to avoid duplication of work need to be thought about on an ongoing basis. Examples
of some key questions will be; "What information is needed? What information is
not needed to get the work done efficiently? Where do we integrate with other
teams, and what can we do to have seamless integration?" There is no room for
us and them attitudes for successful teams.

Today we measure labor cost against sales, the work of a team may not always
mean improving sales. Work performed needs to be measured by how much it enhances important aspects like performance, cost saving, competitive advantage, profitability amongst others. Many important functions performed have no way of reflecting their true value in today's management methods.

The service industry in particular could benefit from implementing accountability. With heavy emphasis on people, whether they be employees or customers, the
service industry makes the perfect candidate for accountability. It brings the promise of a caring and involved workforce. For large companies this particular management style could be a way of becoming more responsive. For companies with multiple outlets, management by accountability may just solve the problem of high turnover
of managers. At least it would make visible employees with superior leadership qualities.

Due to the flexibility and communication demands of this style of management,
new technology will play a major part in its effectiveness.

Written by Marcel Schoch
Copyright 1994